Zhed's Ai Seriously Needs Work

scrinner

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2006

Ive noticed this a couple of times and so has my friends. Zhed basically ignores flags. The Tank will go to aggro but zhed will ignore his flag and follow the tank ruining the aggro and killing him.

Zhed also loves to tank once all aggro is on him.. but oh wait hes an ele...

Im not sure why kind of details Anet require but has anybody else noticed this?

Omega X

Omega X

Ninja Unveiler

Join Date: Jun 2005

Louisiana, USA

Boston Guild[BG]

W/Me

Probably a bug. He never did that for me.

Yichi

Yichi

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Sep 2005

Guild Hall, Vent, Guesting, PvE, or the occasional HA match...

Dark Alley [dR]

put him on avoid combat or gaurd and hes fine.

Antheus

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

No hero should ever be set on "Fight", or you have a wammo disaster waiting to happen. When in this mode, they ignore flags, since they need to attack.

luinks

luinks

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2006

Purple Ravens

Mo/E

more likely avoid combat, guard will ignore flag too, other than that he does a pretty good nuker/warder

SirShadowrunner

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Sep 2005

at the beach

Gamerzunlimited (GU)

R/

Well Zhed is just a party animal, he loves to kick his hoofs up at ppl, I like
the galloping sound he makes when running, adds to "environment".

Alya

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2005

European servers

RTFM

Also, try not to give him any proximity spells that say "nearby foes" or "adjacent foes"... This helps, from my experience.

gtnshape

Academy Page

Join Date: Aug 2005

I have tried all three settings and it didnt matter. He spontaneously will just run in and die. This seems to happen with olias too, he is my MM and if I set him to avoid combat he will never go in with his minions. It happened on all 10 chars through out the game on NF. If there were two Zheds in the party they seemed to alternate going in and tanking. Sometimes we would be way out of aggro and he would just run off and attack a group.

Zaxan Razor

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Oct 2005

Organised Spam [OS]

W/

Agreed, i have zhed set as a searing flames nuker, and for some reason sometimes he will stand next to his target and then cast it.

But the bigger problem with heroes, why will they not follow targets everytime? :S:S

About 1 in 2 times they will just attack whatever they want to, no matter how much you spam the target.

Is the only way to open each of their control panels up and set targets? if so thats far too clumsey, and your party could be dead by the time you have each target set

Muskegon Raider

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Mar 2006

I'm having some problems with Olias as a MM since last update, he seems more interested in keeping the minions at full health than following my instructions to attack.....and he is always staying too far form batlle....

WasAGuest

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2006

Consider yourself lucky in a few of those situations.

If I don't play GW like an RTS with some of the heroes, they always ignore... reguardless of flag placement or "attitude" settings.

Example: Koss will engage only after a monk has charged full throttle into battle, no matter if set to guard, attack or flee to the hills upon contact.
Zhed and Olias both love to run off and do things on their own all the time as well.
Master of Whispers enjoys an occasional spanking from the locals as well. I often see him run up to "taunt" then come fleeing back with a nice train of now perma-aggro'd foes.

Sollutions I've come up with:

Put Koss to work with a hammer. He seems more likely to charge in first that way. No idea why; just seems to work.
Making Zhed a "Ritualist Spirit" spammer worked for keeping him under control, though defeated his real purpose I had set out for him.
Olias - worst MM yet. If there's a dead body somewhere, he must use it.
MoW - Going with Blood and again the Ritualist Spirits does a great deal of good. He isn't bad as a MM and less likely to "see" a dead body 100 miles away that he "must" use.
Dunkoro and Talk - I found having them set as Mo/Me meant they enjoyed the upfront contact, whereas changing them to Mo/Ne or Mo/Rt would keep them back some.

What I get from this, is the same "thinking" the AI has towards aggro. Rather than being AR and health related as is rumored, it's class based. Since the classes seem to also affect the attitudes of the heroes and their desire to follow commands and stay on targets. I've never had any trouble having them stay on target when it's a monk or ele, but anything else and they seem to get confused and begin to Benny Hill it.

Your milage may vary as the AI is like the mobs and heroes... all over the place, scrambled and a mess.

Andisa Kalorn

Andisa Kalorn

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2006

[PMS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zaxan Razor
But the bigger problem with heroes, why will they not follow targets everytime? :S:S

About 1 in 2 times they will just attack whatever they want to, no matter how much you spam the target.

Is the only way to open each of their control panels up and set targets? if so thats far too clumsey, and your party could be dead by the time you have each target set This has been one of the most frustrating things in the game for me. Before heroes, henchies would always follow your target, which made them better than most pugs even though they were weaker. But now, sometimes I feel like I'm playing with a pug again. It's not as bad when they're on guard, but it still doesn't solve the problem. It seems almost that the only way I can get them to focus on my target is to make sure it's the first target within aggro range. Otherwise, I suspect they just attack whoever attacks them first. I find it very annoying when I'm trying to kill the ele and I'm the only one causing him damage, while all the heroes are busy killing some warrior.

And the henchies basically act like heroes on aggressive. I would REALLY like it if they stopped devona from running far out of my aggro circle after monsters, or mhenlo from running out of my aggro circle (and into a group of monsters) to rez.

One of the most amusing examples of this, for me, happened the first time I tried to do gates of desolation. I flagged my heroes and henchies on the hill with me, far from the sulphur. And made sure my heroes were set on guard. Despite this, at one point, Devona and Sousuke followed the retreating wurm queen far into the sulphur, almost at the edge of the radar, and died. And no I had no "adjacent" spells on Sousuke. I finished the mission regardless, but still. We're given controls for the heroes, but what's the point if they don't follow them?

ValaOfTheFens

ValaOfTheFens

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Sep 2006

Warrior Nation[WN]

I have Master of Whispers set up as a BiP Necro and he spends more time casting Well of Blood than BiP or any other spell. I'm lucky I have Bloodstained Boots or I'd never get any corpses for myself. *lol* What's a MM to do when a BiP is stealin' all your corpses? I yelled at MoW out loud the other day and my mom asked me "Did you just tell your laptop to stop stealing your corpses?"

gtnshape

Academy Page

Join Date: Aug 2005

Ya Olias is a power rezer on the dead bodies, what is nice about it is if you have two MM heros, you get a large army that can lay serious waste. Me and a guildie powered through factions and proph. without a pug on any mish. especially on vizinah square wow it went fast. But in the general play dunkuro gets pasted, olias stays back and heals his minions, and zhed makes sure he plays warrior. Interesting tactic though using him for a rit SS, I will have to try that since getting the rit hero for all the toons will take an enternity.

scrinner

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2006

My Zhed was a Searing flames ele and Yes i did have him on the guard/defend the stay behind mode whatever its called.. yet he loves to jump in..

DiabolicalBob

DiabolicalBob

Banned

Join Date: Jun 2006

Seattle Wa

Diabolical Mischief Gurus

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alya
Also, try not to give him any proximity spells that say "nearby foes" or "adjacent foes"... This helps, from my experience. So Hundred Blades wouldnt be so good, huh? Im still learning a bit, but i figured if i had that going & him, it would be a doosy of a group. No? (just a Q, dont shred on me plz)

SORRY twas thinking of Koss (my bad)

Slomo

Slomo

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2006

Denmark

Southern Farmers Union

Olias: No problems when set as MM or SS, Blood Necro doesnt quite work tho

MoW: No problems when set as MM or SS, Dodgy as Blood Necro

Any other Hero (except Razah and Zhed): Any setup, no probs

Razah: Havent got him yet...

ZHED!! Uber-aggro tank from hell (+3) ARgh! What a crap AI... He tanks anything he can get his hooves to!

Well that abt sums it up for me...

Good luck getting Heroes to work, i only use them in easy-areas or as a last resort to (even!) PuGs.

Muk Utep

Muk Utep

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Dec 2006

I've always had problems with heroes. You call a target for them and set off to kill another enemy by yourself, and soon enough they'll follow and assist you instead of sticking to their target. You set a flag and go to pull a mob, and the second the mob aggroes, the heroes charge at it. Changing their combat mode had little effect for me, except when I set them to avoid, which isn't all that useful for warriors and such. It's especially bad with henchmen because you can't change theirs, and some of them seem to be on attack mode. The cutthroat henchman from Cantha is particularly bad at it.

Shinigami God

Shinigami God

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2006

Beating Nightfall for the N-th time -_-

Tactical Error [Stop]

N/

In Gates of Desolation Mission, Zhed just randomly charged into the sulphur in the part before we earned the wurms! It was unbelievably annoying, and he even ignored my flags as I tried to tell him to move away >.<